Mix a star chef with everyday supermarket ingredients, 150 modern, delicious recipes with global flavors that home cooks can make with ease, and you have Chef Todd English's newest cookbook -- Cooking in Everyday English The ABCs of Great Flavor at Home" -- the world-renowned chef's fourth book.
On Thursday, English hosted an exclusive book signing for his latest cookbook at his Olives restaurant at the Atlantis.
"Cooking in Everyday English The ABCs of Great Flavor At Home" is divided into 10 mouthwatering chapters -- cocktails and appetizers; soups, salads and sandwiches; vegetables; starches; birds and eggs; meat; fish and shellfish and desserts. And most recipes have 10 or fewer ingredients, and most are prepared in 30 minutes or less.
The book includes a beginner's primer that focuses on spice rubs, vinaigrettes, compound butters, aiolis and master pasta and dough recipes that are easy to make yet go beyond the true basics.
There are also 50 simple essential techniques from peeling an avocado in seconds to extracting meat from lobster, offering simple skills that save time and effort in the kitchen with an eye on how you cook at home.
Throughout the book there are a number of how-tos, which makes it feel like the reader has a personal "cook whisperer" at their side with Chef English walking his readers through the basic techniques every cook should know.
The celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, television personality and entrepreneur, who is a four-times James Beard Award winner's with more than 20 restaurants said his latest cookbook is about his style of cooking -- cooking at home, cooking fresh and cooking farm to table.
"I always believe in cooking common ingredients in uncommon ways, so it really gives a twist on things that are simple. These are recipes that I've been doing on and off for years, and some new ones that came out of just working in the kitchen."
He also provides pictures for every recipe in the book, as he believes it's important for his readers to have visuals as to what the finished dish should look like. He also offers a suggestion as to what to drink with each dish.
While English says every recipe in the book is stellar, pressed as to what his readers should try to make first out of his new cookbook, he did admit to being partial to the Double-Carrot Risotto which he said is healthy and delicious.
English's new book took him about to year to write. It was released last year, but he held off the release in The Bahamas so that he could do the book signing.
Chef English, who is known for his interpretive rustic Mediterranean cuisine also did a live pasta cooking demonstration on Friday, at Olives, which included a tasting and personalized book. And his freshly made pastas with offerings like seafood fra diavolo (spicy tomato sauce, shrimp and Maine lobster), butternut squash tortelli (brown butter, sage and Parmesan), ricotta ravioli (roasted tomato basil sauce, sweet Italian sausage, and garlic breadcrumbs) and handcrafted rigatoni Bolognese (old-school Tuscan Bolognese and shaved Parmigiano) are some of the most requested items on the menu, as people can see their pasta being made for their dish.
The whole snapper from the fish market, which is seasoned simply with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled a la plancha, and served with a watermelon radish slaw and a choice of four sauces -- roasted tomato butter, pineapple ginger vinaigrette, salsa verde or lemon caper scampi butter, is a big seller from their fish market.
Rounding out the top three top three requested items on the Olives menu is the diver scallops with sweet pea risotto, pancetta and a 63-degree egg.
Chef English is also the author of "The Olives Table," "The Figs Table" and "The Olives Dessert Table".

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